Untold Truth

Chapter 19

We check the rest of the traps in silence and I can feel the awkward in the air. We find 3 more but Jack cuts them down. At one point I try to talk to him but he just looks forward. I can tell he's thinking a lot. When we finish checking all of the traps I nudge him. He looks at me quickly, his eyes wide. "What's wrong?" He asks searching me for something bad.

    I shake my head. "Jack you've hardly said a thing since the Donna thing." I tell him.

    "I'm sorry, I've just been thinking," he says. I know what he's thinking about. He's worried. But when isn't he? And I've been thinking too. About my dad. I shake it off and smile at him.

    "Okay, well let's do something to take our minds off of it." I suggest.

    "Psh, like what?" He asks not even considering it.

"Why do you have to be such a downer?" I ask him.

He looks at me. "A downer? I'm a downer? I am very fun!" He says a little hurt.

I look around. What can we do? We are less then a mile from his house.

    "Ummm.... Race you back!" I yell and run off before he hears what I say. I take off and I can feel his confusion as he tries to understand what I even said.

    "Oh no you don't!" He yells and I sprint harder and faster. I do not want to loose. I turn my head and see Jack is right behind me. I push myself harder and I see the pond. Almost there. Suddenly I feel myself being lifted into the air. All my previous speed is gone and I throw my arms around in confusion. Jack laughs and sets me down on my butt. Before I can yell at him he takes off running to the pond. Looking back once and laughing at my face.

    "Jack! That's cheating!" I yell. But I just get up and run after him. He stops when he reaches the pond and I come over shortly after. "That was so not fair!" I complain.

    "Life's not fair," He says. He pretends shoves me and I act shocked. I turn around and start to walk back to the woods. "Karlie, I was kidding." He says after me.

I turn around and run straight into him. He loosed his balance and falls into the pond, taking me with him. He lifts me up and throws me farther in while he runs out.

"Tricky." He smiles. I lay flat on my back and float around. The water is so beautiful.  I run my hand along the surface of the water.

    "Can we juts sit by the pond?" I ask, not wanting the moment to end.

    "Yeah. Go ahead." He says thoughtfully.

I look around for somewhere to sit. I see a big rock overlooking the pond and choose that. I swim over to it and crawl out of the water. I sit down cross legged and look up. Judging by the sun we have at least 4 hours of sunlight left. I listen to the sounds around and hear the wild birds and animals. The silence is ruined when I hear Jack come up behind me. He sits next to me without a word.

    "This is great," I tell him truthfully.

    He sighs, "Isn't it." It goes silent again but it feels natural. Like we are just enjoying nature. This reminds me of my childhood. When I used to just go on hikes with my dad and we would pick a random rock to sit on and draw. A single tear slips my eye but I wipe it away before Jack can notice.

    "Hey Jack?" I ask intruding the silence.

    "What?" He says, for once not in concern, but in peace.

    "Why did you tell me about my dad? Why didn't you just let me be clueless? Like everyone else has done. What made you want to tell me?"

    He looks me dead in the eyes, "Because Karlie, I saw something in you that reminded me of myself." I look down about to ask what, but he puts his hand up to tell me to wait. "And when I discovered that you knew nothing, that no one told you, I just had to let you know. You were to innocent. Not like... Someone I used to know." he trails off. "And also..." His face turns a little red, "I thought you were gorgeous." He confesses.

    I look at him shocked. "I am NOT gorgeous." I say like I'm denying something.

    "You really are." He says looking at me. "You don't even know it," at this he laughs a little and shakes his head.

    I laugh, "Come on friends are supposed to be honest. Don't lie to me."

    Jack looks at me hurt, eyes wide, "Why would I lie to you?" He questions.

    "Jack." I say sternly. "Let's change the subject." I tell him not wanting to talk about my appearances. I don't want to admit it but he is the one who looks handsome. I feel almost silly by him. But of course he knows he looks good.

    "Okay. How about this: honest hour." He says smiling a mischievous grin at me and raising his eyebrows.

    "Oh no. Uh huh. Don't give me that look. I know that look. I give that look. It means you're planning something." I tell him. "Honest hour?" I ask unsure.

    "Ya. We can take turns admitting things to each other." He says. Good, I think. I can finally figure him out, maybe this is his way of telling me things.

    "Ya let's do it. I'll go first." I offer. I think about something he doesn't know. Boy though he knows a lot. Almost more then me. I take a deep breath. "Okay. My dad wasn't always so bad to me. He used to love me. I remember he would take me to the park and to go shopping. He was at all of my birthday parties. He was really nice. Then when I was about 8 he started getting weird. He started yelling at me for little things. And soon the beatings came." I say solemnly. "It was just such a sudden switch, like something went off. I still wish I knew what drove him to that point." I look up to him and he looks like he's thinking. "Now you go." I say quickly trying to end the silence.

Jack doesn't respond. We sit silently for about 20 minutes. I don't even notice how much time passes until I see the sun start to set. The picture is perfect. Sitting by a handsome boy, watching the sunset. Something inside me melts a little. 

    "Karlie. I... I..." Jack starts. "I need to put my bag in the house before it gets to late." He gets up and takes his stuff inside.